Allegiance - a night that changed history

Written by Mary Kenny, Allegience is the dramatisation of actual events that changed history.

Written by Mary Kenny, Allegience is the dramatisation of actual events that changed history.

In 1921 Eamon de Valera ordered Michael Collins under sufferance, to travel to London, with the Irish delegation, to negotiate the Treaty that followed the Truce and the War of Independence.

Winston Churchill was Colonial Secretary in charge of Ireland, and the two men were prepared to detest one another. Yet, at a point when the Treaty talks seemed to be in stasis, Churchill and Collins spent a night drinking together, talking, arguing, even singing and reciting poetry.

They emerged from this session fascinated by each other. After this, Winston Churchill softened towards Ireland, and gave Michael Collins and the Irish Free State every support he could. The play is a moving portrait of two men who were antagonists, and yet, at a certain level, comrades, each recognizing the qualities of the other.

Not many people know this but Churchill had as many links as Collins to north Kerry having spent his childhood summers as his cousins’ estate of Tarbert House .This play also had a very successful run in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2006 starring Mel Smith as Churchill with Michael Fassbender reprising the role of his direct descendant Michael Collins!

A superb and very entertaining play and promises to engage the audience right from the start.

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